Former Assam Congress President Ripun Bora Sunday joined the All India Trinamool Congress in Kolkata becoming the latest leader to leave the grand old party in Assam. Bora’s move to the TMC follows that of Sushmita Dev, who joined Mamata Banerjee’s party in August last year.
“From today I have started my new political journey!” Bora tweeted on Sunday evening, sharing his resignation letter, addressed to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
From today I have started my new political journey! pic.twitter.com/pGWfycwI4D
— Ripun Bora (@ripunbora) April 17, 2022
A tweet from the official Trinamool Congress handle said: “Delighted to welcome Shri@ripunbora, Former Minister of Panchayat & Rural Development, Minister of Education in Assam, former Rajya Sabha MP & former President of Assam Pradesh Congress committee! He joined us today in the presence of Shri @abhishekaitc.”
Extending a very warm welcome to Shri @ripunbora, a stalwart and skilled politician, who joined the @AITCofficial family today.
We are extremely pleased to have you onboard and look forward to working together for the well-being of our people! pic.twitter.com/Tz0Q691Egd
— Abhishek Banerjee (@abhishekaitc) April 17, 2022
In the recent Rajya Sabha election in Assam, Bora, who was the joint Opposition candidate, had failed to retain his seat. Considering the Opposition had the numbers, Bora’s loss was controversial and led to a war of words between the Opposition parties (Congress and AIUDF), each blaming the other of “cross voting.”
In his letter, Bora alleged that there was “infighting” within the Congress, for “vested interests.”
“Instead of fighting aggressively and unitedly to prevent BJP at this critical juncture of the country, the leader of this grand old Congress party at different levels are fighting each other for their vested interest” Bora wrote in the letter.
He also alleged that it was an “open secret” that a section of senior leaders from the Assam Congress had been “maintaining secret understanding with the BJP Govt mainly with the Chief Minister.”
A former minister in the Tarun Gogoi regime, Bora has been associated with the Congress since his student days, joining the party officially in 1976. In 2016, he was elected as a Rajya Sabha MP from the state. After the Congress lost in Assam in 2016, he was made the state unit’s chief to strengthen the party. However, when Congress suffered a defeat in the 2021 polls, Bora submitted his resignation as the party chief, taking “moral responsibility” for the party’s poor electoral show.
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Congress’s Debabrata Saikia, who is the Leader of Opposition in the Assam Assembly, described Bora’s resignation as a “move for his own self interest”. “He wanted a Rajya Sabha seat, and that is why he left,” alleged Saikia.
Congress leader and MP Pradyut Bordoloi said that the Congress had given Bora a “lot of leverage”. “There were many applicants for the RS seat, but we gave it to him”, said Bordoloi. Added Saikia: “Whether there was infighting or not, Congress was hundred per cent behind him during the recent polls.”
Responding to the allegations, TMC’s Dev said the Congress should retrospect why leaders were leaving the party, rather than “throwing them under the bus.” “It is easy to call Ripun Bora a traitor but one needs to analyse what people are thinking and doing when they resign,” she said, adding that leaders saw “little future” in the Congress. “The party should have fought tooth and nail in the recent Rajya Sabha polls, put up a united front since Bora was the last man standing in the Northeast for the party in the Rajya Sabha —but they lost, despite having the numbers,” she said.
